The Somber Dawn
by BogiBear
Summary: I still remember the first time I woke up in this world. I can distinctly recall the feel of the grass beneath my fingers, the smell of the dirt, the quiet rustling of the trees. It was pleasant. Unfortunately, it was all downhill from there.
1. Chapter 1

The Somber Dawn

Chapter 1

A SAO fic

I still remember the first time I woke up in this world. I can distinctly recall the feel of the grass beneath my fingers, the smell of the dirt, the quiet rustling of the trees. It was pleasant.

My eyes flew open. " _What the hell?_ _Where am I?"_ It felt like I had been sleeping for days, and I woke up groggy, with a headache to boot. I felt like hell.

I slowly take note of my surroundings. I was in a quiet, peaceful little clearing in the middle of a small glade with trees lightly shading the short, green grass that covered the ground as far as I could see into the forest.

" _How did I get here?"_ The last thing I remembered was… Well, I couldn't actually recall. Sure, I could remember my mother's face, my sister's name, where I had gone to school and the like but I had no specific memories of how I got here or where I was. Had I gotten blackout drunk or been drugged or something?

I sat up, rubbing my head absently as my headache pounded. After a moment I stood up, realizing a weird weight on my back. " _A… Sword? Why do I have a sword strapped to my back?"_

Deciding it couldn't come to any harm, I slid the sword out of its scabbard on my back and swung it around lazily. The weight indicated it was a real sword and not some plastic knockoff or something. Sliding the sword back into the scabbard on my back (which took a few tries, some of which I almost stabbed myself on), I trekked on towards the only sign of civilization I can find. Which was a massive pillar of untold height reaching into the sky. I scratched my head. " _Where the hell am I?"_

I didn't walk long, probably only thirty minutes or so when I hit the edge of the glade and heard clanging sounds ahead and someone yelling, just over the crest of a small hill.

I started running forward. With any luck, I'd found someone to get me home, or at least tell me where I was. Some kind of boar squealed, and I heard some glass break or something. I came over the hill just in time to see two people high fiving.

"Hey! Could you guys…" I trailed off as I started to feel intimidated by how they looked. And by that I mean _good_. One of them was clearly taller than six feet, while the other was actually a more tame height, but both had incredibly sharp cheeks, broad chins, and broad shoulders. They almost looked made up, like they had customized themselves from a character select or something.

"Need something?" The tall one in the bandana asked me.

"Uh, yeah, could either of you tell me where the hell we are right now?"

The one in black answered. "We're in the Grass Plains, about a half mile away from the Town of Beginnings. Did you get lost or something? You know you can check your map through the menu."

The words didn't register at first. Honestly, given my prior knowledge, it's a little embarrassing I didn't get it at that point. "Uh, what?"

The black haired one sighed. "Honestly, how many noobs am I going to meet today? Swipe down with your left hand like this."

I did as he said, and the moment the jingle and the small bar popped up in my vision was when I first started to put it all together.

Bandana Dude's next words drove it home. "Is this your first VRMMO too? Honestly, you must've been pretty lucky to snag a copy, like me. Sword Art Online sold out in minutes!"

My hands fell to my sides. If I had been holding anything, it would've gone clattering to the floor. "What did you just say?"

"I said you must've been–"

"No not that, the name. Tell me the name!"

His eyes widened at my frantic tone. "Sword Art Online. Didn't you know this when you bought the game?"

I grabbed the dude dressed in black's shoulder. "What's the date?"

"W-What?"

"Tell me the date!"

He grabbed my shoulder right back, worry apparent on his face. "It's November 6th 2022. Are you sure you're ok? You should log out and go to a hospital. I think the NervGear is affecting your memory or something."

Shit. This couldn't be happening. I fell back onto the grass below me. This is just some dumb story. There's no way I could actually be inside SAO.

Bandana Dude– _Klein,_ I thought to myself– looked down at me worriedly. "Well, I'm going to logout, I have a pizza coming. You should do the same thing. Try and find some a doctor or something."

I shook my head. "It's no use." I said in a low tone.

Klein looked up at me from his menu. "What? Whatever, dude find some… help…"

Kirito looked over at Klein. "Something wrong?"

Klein spoke while still navigating his menu. "The logout button… it's gone."

"What? That's impossible. Look harder."

I ignored their further dialogue as I tried to come to terms with what was happening. I was five _years_ into the future, stuck in what I knew to be some kind of death game put on by a madman that would kill four thousand innocent kids. And the only reason I knew all this was because I had read it all in a goddamn _book_.

"Hey. Hey!" I realized someone was shaking my shoulder and looked up to see Klein looking down at me seriously. "How did you know?"

"What?"

"How did you know the logout button was gone?"

"I-I had already tried it."

Klein shook his head. "Bullshit. You didn't even know how to open your menu. There's no way you could've already tried."

I laughed nervously and averted my gaze from him.

"Klein. We have bigger problems. Did you submit a ticket to the GM's?"

Luckily, Klein let go of my shoulder. "I tried, but no one answered. My guess is they're totally swamped."

"Yeah…" Kirito replied uncertainly. He turned his attention to me. "Do you know anything about this?"

"Uh…" Luckily, just then, we were all surrounded by an ethereal blue glow. I breathed a sigh of relief as I realized they weren't going to be able to put me on the spot anymore.

Teleportation is… disorienting. There's really no other way to put it. One second I was in the sitting in the grass, the next I was falling and my ass hit the ground against some cold, hard, cobblestone. Apparently, the teleportation mechanic was supposed to be used when standing.

I stood up and looked around. It seemed the forced teleportation only kept you together with others if you were partied, because Klein and Kirito were nowhere in sight. As random players I didn't recognize milled about the square talking in hushed tones, a sphere of red tiles appeared around the square, effectively locking us in. A drop of blood formed into the menacing cloak of Akihiko Kayaba. Of course, I had seen it all before, but it was much more intimidating in person.

"Attention, players. Welcome to my world." He began his speech. I used the time to look around frantically for anyone I recognized, shoving disgruntled players out of my way. I couldn't find anyone. The square was huge, and filled with 10,000 players. Well, 9,787, I amended as Kayaba got to that part of his speech. I shook my head of the morbid joke. I couldn't waste time on stupid, dark, jokes. I needed to find someone because… Well…

My frantic search slowed a bit. What was I gonna do when I did find someone? I couldn't tell anyone about what I knew. They'd call me crazy, or worse, think I was working under Kayaba.

" _What do I do now?_ " Suddenly, everyone around me was surrounded in a blue glow. That meant Kayaba must have gotten to the mirror part of his speech. Whatever I was going to do, I didn't have much time until this place blew up in pandemonium. " _What is my goal?"_

The answer came surprisingly easy. To save lives. If I cut the death toll down even by just one person, that was one more innocent kid who got to go back to their old life. On the other hand, my being here could be a complete disaster. If I changed even one thing and another person died for it, their blood would be on my hands and my hands alone. I had the power to make or break this world. " _So what do I do?"_

Kayaba was nearing the end of his speech. I could find Kirito and go with him. I shook my head. Too risky. Kirito was the hero of this story, if I changed even one thing in his timeline, I could kill thousands of players and the game may never end.

I could find one of the girls in the story. I shook my head again. Asuna was out for the same reason as Kirito. It was too risky for me to mess with their relationship. I had no way of finding Lizbeth or Silica, and I would waste a ton of time looking around if they left the Town of Beginnings like Kirito did. I could always find Klein...

"This marks the end of the tutorial and the official launch of Sword Art Online. Players, I wish you the best of luck."

Shit. I had maybe a few precious seconds to make up my mind as everyone stood around in shock. In my rush to find Klein, I bumped right into another player and knocked her down.

"Ow, who the hell…"

My eyes widened. I almost didn't recognize her without the markings on her face, but…

"Argo…"

Her eyes narrowed. "How do you know my name?"

I almost laughed out loud at my incredible luck. "Argo, the information broker, right?"

"Yeah, and who are you?"

"Not important. I need you to come with me."

Her look of suspicion was so strong I was almost hurt. "Why?"

"Thousands of lives are at stake here. I need your help right now." I tried to convey the truth and importance through my words.

It seemed to work as her eyes widened and she followed me out of the square just as the first of the more panicky players shouted something and started running around. It started a chain reaction as others also panicked. It was a miracle no one was trampled in the first few minutes of the game.

Argo looked at me seriously. "What do you need me for? Is this death game real?"

I considered my words carefully. I needed to spin this web incredibly delicately, otherwise this whole thing could blow up in my face. "I need you to get a message out to every player in the game right now. Preferably within 3 hours. Can you do that?"

She slowly nodded her head. I didn't know the intricacies of information brokering, but I knew it included lots of contacts who knew lots more contacts. "I can try. What do you want it to say?"

"Tell them… tell them I was on the development team for this game."

Her eyes widened and she looked left and right, alarmed. "W-What?"

I put my hands up in a surrendering gesture. "It's a lie, but this is extremely important. I can't tell you how, but I can confirm that you WILL die in real life if you die in this game. The explanation contains a lot of sciency stuff and it's easier and more believable to say I'm on the dev team."

She nodded her head, seeing where I was coming from, and hopefully, believing the bullshit I had spun to cover up the bullshit I was spinning. "Tell them that I was on the dev team and that I can confirm that Kayaba is a madman. Say something like 'I found out his grand plan, so he knocked me out and trapped me in here'. I'm sure whatever you can come up with will be more believable than what I have."

She nodded her head, more resolutely this time. "Some of the players may not take his threat seriously… they might kill themselves."

"Yeah, that's the thought. We're saving lives here, Argo. And I need you to do this for me."

She said nothing, favoring to quickly open her menu and navigate at lightning speed. I saw a virtual keyboard pop up in front of her and her fingers _flew_ across it at enviable speed. There were a few moments where she appeared stuck, tapping out on her thigh before returning to the keyboard at the same lightning speed.

About 15 minutes in, she nodded her head, and tapped the "send" button. "It's done. I've sent it to everyone I could, and they should hopefully have the word spread within three hours." She looked back at her menu before clicking a few more buttons.

I raised an eyebrow in surprise as a friend request popped up in my vision. She sighed. "It'll be easier to keep in contact this way in case anyone questions me. And besides, you seem like a nice enough guy."

I shrugged and tapped accept. It couldn't hurt to be friends with the resident information broker.

"Cayde…"

I continued to flick around my menu, unsure of my next step.

"Hey, Cayde. Earth to Cayde…" It took me a minute to realize she was talking to me. Apparently my in-game name was Cayde. That brought a smile to my face. Maybe I could find a kick ass flaming gun and add a -6 to the end of it.

"Yeah?"

She smirked as she went to exit the alley. "I'll be seeing you around. And be sure to keep in touch, you're pretty cute without your avatar."

I knew she was teasing me. On top of the fact that I knew her personality and I was still having trouble imagining this as real and not just some fever dream, I was fairly average looking. None of this knowledge stopped me from blushing.

Her smirk grew as she threw me a jaunty wave and turned the corner. I sighed and cracked my neck to both sides. Well, that could've gone worse. I exited the alley in another direction, facing West, or whatever direction the sun sets in Aincrad I suppose. What a day. And what a night it'll be for the rest of these players, who had no way of knowing this was coming. They, like me, probably thought they would wake up tomorrow and this would all be a bad dream. And when we all woke up tomorrow, still trapped in this horrid place? It would be a somber dawn indeed.


	2. Chapter 2

The Somber Dawn

Chapter 2

A SAO fic

" _If it's 2022, am I still 17 or am I technically 22 already?"_ I slashed down another Wolf before shrugging. "I guess I still look 17."

"What was that?" My sole party member called out from the other side of the clearing.

"Nothing, Argo. Nothing." She shrugged and sliced down another level 3 Wolf.

Argo and I had formed a surprisingly cohesive party together for the last 2 weeks or so after she had sheepishly ran back through the alley and asked me to party up. This was the first time I saw her blush, and I decided if we were going to party up, I would make sure it was the first of many, many times. She wasn't the _best_ fighter, preferring to find alternative ways to make col. Of course neither was I, but we were both quick learners and Argo was a beta tester so we didn't have much trouble.

"Are you sure these rumors are true? We've been out here all day."

She rolled her eyes at my doubts. "I'm an information broker. Of course these rumors are true. The Pack Leader has a small chance to drop a rare item. I think you're just bad luck."

"Can't agree with you more. I've always had bad luck. I can't believe you partied with me."

She clutched her chest in mock pain before slicing down another Wolf. "Trust me, I regret the decision everyday. If only, I think, I could've teamed up with someone more capable."

I rolled my eyes at her antics. Truly, this woman was a lot of trouble. "Heads up. Pack Leader coming from the North."

She gave me an easy solute. "Aye-aye captain. Eyes to the north!"

We took the mini-boss down with ease. Really, at level 4 against a level 5 mini-boss, it should be significantly harder. Unfortunately for this particular Pack Leader, we had been doing this all day. We knew the attack patterns in and out and hit the weak spots like they were highlighted. It wasn't long before the boss burst into polygons.

I blinked in surprise as a 'Congratulations!' pop up hit my screen, letting me know I'd leveled up. Leveling up in SAO was… well it was honestly like how it was in any other game. It gave you a few stat points to distribute, a nice congratulatory message and a status update. I dumped all of my point for this level up into Agility. Nothing can hurt me if it can't hit me.

"Hey, you got last hit. Did you get the rare item?"

I swiped my status screen out of existence. "Haven't checked yet. Got a level up." My breath nearly hitched as I saw the rare item Blue Fang had showed up in my inventory, along with my multitude of regular Wolf Fangs. "Yeah I got it. What does it do again?"

Argo groaned in protest. "How did you get it and not me? That's not fair…" She poured for a minute before sighing. "It resets your upgrade slots on your weapon without bringing down any of the modified stats on it. So basically, you can upgrade it 5 times, apply the Blue Fang, and upgrade it 5 more times."

This… was actually a very valuable drop. "Do they stack?"

She shook her head. "You can only use it once per weapon. Honestly, you could've just read the description."

"Yeah but then I wouldn't get to hear you go through the trouble of saying it." I retorted

She rolled her eyes. "Really, if that's your best attempt at annoying me, you've gotta try harder."

My eyes gleamed. "Is that a challenge? I'll have you know I'm a bona fide class 1 annoyance."

Her eyes narrowed. "Try me."

And so we arrived back at Tolbana, Argo red in the face and fuming, and myself with a bright red slap mark across my left cheek and a triumphant grin plastered to my face. Oh, how I loved the thieving skill.

"I'll be in the market. Shoot me a message when you cool off so I know when I can come back to the inn."

She gave me a curt nod before storming off in the direction of the inn. But I couldn't let her go without one more parting comment. "It should be pretty easy to cool off in your state. What with your missing–" I dodged a punch aimed straight for my nose before sprinting off in the other direction, laughing and dodging around NPC's and other players until Argo was totally out of sight, where I hid inside a random building until it was clear she had given up. I breathed a sigh of relief and ducked back out of the building.

For the rest of the night I mostly wandered around town, looking at random NPC shops and the occasional player shop. Most players who wanted to be a merchant were back in the Town of Beginnings, so I certainly wasn't looking at the best or rarest gear the first floor had to offer, but I didn't really need that either. Finding a small NPC run bakery that served my purposes, I bought a small cake and waited on a bench until my system dinged, alerting me of a PM.

"You can come back– expect fire and hell coming your way for this one"–Argo

I chuckled after reading the message. I'm not really sure who started our little game of teasing but we'd been going two weeks strong. I whistled a jaunty tune on my way back to the inn and many players gave me odd looks. I suppose I was an odd commodity right then. I was happy. You didn't see that much in the first few weeks of SAO.

Using my key to unlock the door to our inn room, I found Argo on her bed, absently tapping out PM's on her virtual keyboard.

I pulled the cake I bought out of my inventory. "Here. I bought you this."

Her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "What did you do to this?"

I raised my hands in surrender. "Ouch, no trust. I didn't do anything to it, promise. I just wanted to say sorry, I think I took this one too far. And thanks, for partying with me that is."

She materialized a fork out of her inventory, and carefully took a bite of the cake. Chewing slowly before apparently finding it to her satisfaction. "I hope you don't think this let's you off the hook. I'm still gonna get you good next time."

I laughed and shook my head before laying down in the bed closer to the window. "I wouldn't have it any other way."

The coming days were spent in very much the same way, constant grinding and questing interrupted only by Argo's easy banter, until days bled into weeks and weeks into a month. I almost didn't believe it when the call for a strategy meeting for the boss clear came up. Surely it hadn't been… well, I guess it had. I woke up one last time in the tiny inn room that had started to feel like home.

"Are you going to the boss strategy meeting?" Argo's voice sounded from the bed next to mine.

I nodded my head affirmative, before realizing she probably couldn't see me. "Yeah. I think they're gonna need as much help as they can get, and with the gear I've accumulated I think I can be of substantial help."

Her voice sounded again as she sat up in the bed. "Well, wait for me, you dummy."

I blinked. "You're coming?"

She rolled her eyes. "Well of course. We've been together from the start. Why would I back out on you now?"

Because she hadn't been there the first time, I wanted to say. In the original story, without my interference, Argo hadn't participated in the original boss fight. Which meant I had no idea if she would survive the fight if she did come. "Are you sure? It'll be dangerous."

She smirked. "I appreciate the concern, Prince Chivalry, but I can handle myself. You should worry about yourself instead. You're the one that barely pulled off that one Pack Leader kill."

I frowned and my face heated up a little. "Shut up about that. It was in my first week in my first VRMMO. At least I'm not a dirty beta tester like you." I gave a small smile to let her know I wasn't serious.

"Hah! You're just jealous of the awesomeness that is Argo the Information Broker."

I rolled my eyes and faked a deep bow. "Come along, princess, your strategy meeting awaits."

She humphed, and nodded, heading out door.

"Oh, and the title needs work. Is your most impressive trait really the info hoarder part?"

"Shut up! It's not hoarding, it's–!" I silenced her with a finger on her lips. I had heard it all before. Hell, I could probably recite it. I didn't need a serenation all the way to the meeting.

Of course, my opinion hardly mattered, and I heard the whole speech about 'It's not hoarding!' and 'Info brokering is a perfectly honorable profession!' all over again as soon as my finger left her lips. By the time we reached the meeting I was goddamn _tired_ of talking, and we hadn't even started. And judging by the growing smirk on the she-devils face, that was her entire plan.

I sighed and tried not to be bothered by it, mostly out of spite. Walking into the small, semi-circular ruins, I realized we were a touch late, as Diavel had already started his speech. I blinked as I spotted Kirito. Holy shit, this is the start of the second episode. That means…

"Hey Argo…" I started, cutting off her incessant chatter. Which was probably good, considering it was starting to bother the people around us that were actually listening to the speech. "How many people have died so far?"

She blinked at the suddenly serious question. "Um… last I checked it was around 750..." She started, already pulling up her menu before nodding affirmatively. "Yeah, about 800 people have died, including those who had their NervGear taken off. Why?"

My jaw nearly dropped. _1200_ people were alive because of some stupid announcement?! "Argo, what the hell did you put into that announcement I told you to give?"

She smirked. "Oh, I just made up a persona of a GM watching from above. Every once and awhile I

send a threat slash reminder not to throw your life away meaninglessly. At the same time, I'm manning a strip in the newspaper all about positivity and keeping your chin up." She cracked her knuckles and grinned maniacally. "It's a real fun game, and people are just eating it up."

I shook my head and chuckled. "You really are amazing, Argo."

I noticed the crowd in front of us was shuffling around. Oh, they were picking groups already? I must've missed something. Whatever, I'd heard it all before. "Yo, are we going to join a party or do you love me too much to give me up?"

She rolled her eyes, mumbling a distracted "In your dreams" before looked around and realized the same thing I did. "Hm, seems like everyone already found a group. Hey, how about those two over there! I know that guy from the beta!"

I looked where she was pointing. My eyes widened as I realized it was Kirito and Asuna she was pointing at. "Argo, I really don't think we should–"

She didn't hear me in time. "Hey, Ki-bou!" She waved him over before realizing he wasn't going to go to them and ended up jogging across the amphitheater.

"Shit…" I subvocalized. This could be very, very, bad. If Argo and I somehow interfered with Kirito and Asuna's relationship this early in the game? They may never end up together, which would be very bad for a lot of people. The only reason Heathcliff was defeated was because of Kirito's rage at Asuna's death.

I had to salvage this somehow without looking suspicious or like I had information of the future. Argo had done a lot of good, setting up the fake persona of a hidden GM who knew what was going on. Unfortunately for me, however, if a random player just so happened to have some kind of premonition about the future… suspicions would be high, and I'd have to answer questions I couldn't. I sighed and followed behind her.

"And then, he tripped and fell on his face!"

"Ah, I see Argo is filling you in on all of my worst qualities." I glanced at her. "Nice of you to lead with that story, although I didn't expect you to blow your blackmail so early with no tangible gain."

She waved it off. "Eh, it wasn't very good blackmail anyways. Besides, now you can prove yourself to them, since they don't expect anything anymore."

I sighed and was about to drag Argo away kicking and screaming when I got a party invite from Kirito. I raised an eyebrow at him.

"What? I've met both of you. You both seem nice enough, and four is better than two."

My jaw almost dropped. I had forgotten that Kirito wasn't _always_ a loner. That came from his status as a beater and from the death of the Moonlit Black Cats, neither of which had happened yet.

"Of course we'll join your party!" Argo said excitedly before elbowing me in the side.

I reluctantly clicked the accept button. I was still worried I would change too much before the end, but maybe if I could head off Kirito's loner tendencies… no, it was too risky. I couldn't change canon that much, or it could change anything from Kirito's demeanor to Heathcliffe's challenge. I had to keep things how they are. But surely this wouldn't change too much…

"Hey, are you even listening!" I flinched at the sudden intrusion to my ears and my personal space.

I turned to see that spiky haired guy, I couldn't really bother to remember his name, crouching on the stand in front of me. "Can I help you?"

He pointed at Argo. "I said, that one's a confirmed beta-tester! We should take her stuff!"

"Pointing is rude, my spiky haired friend. And she's stuck in here, same as us. If we want to get out with the least amount of casualties possible. We need to work together." I answered nonchalantly. At least I tried to. Some of my anger may have slipped through. Idiots like these, that caused divides in the player base were the reason people died.

"E-Exactly! And she's been hogging all the good spots! I bet she knows about all kinds good hunting places that she never bothered to tell us about!"

I rolled my eyes and was about to retort, when the booming voice of Agil rolled over the ground. I leaned back in my seat. Meh, he's got it.

Argo nudged my side. "Wow, that was pretty cool, Prince Chivalry. Be careful, I might fall for you." Despite the teasing tone, the honesty in her eyes let me know she really did appreciate the gesture.

I kicked my feet up onto the small rising Spiky-Hair had been standing on earlier. "Hah, nonsense. I only did what any noble Knight would."

"Pfft! Noble Knight? I think you fit the Scoundrel bill more."

"I'm a master of both. Knight by day, Scoundrel and Thief by night. If you wish for me to demonstrate my thieving skills again–"

Suddenly there were triple blades at my throat, compliments to Argos weird claw weapon. There was a rare bit of pink diffused through her cheeks. Hah, I win. "We never speak of that again. Ever."

Kirito, who was fascinated by the easy by play between us finally spoke up. "Never speak of what–" in a flash, the blades were gone from under my neck and Kirito's nervous laughter and various placating phrases gave away were they went to.

Meanwhile, Argo's eyes were positively murderous. "Never. Again."

Kirito continued to stutter out apologies for a few minutes, getting more and more nervous as the blades didn't move. He looked at me pleadingly, but I just shrugged and looked back towards the main stage.

…and then I realized we were alone in the stadium. "Uh, guys? I think the meetings over." I noticed something else. "...And Asuna is gone…"

Argo looked around at the empty amphitheater sheepishly, finally lowering her claw weapon. "Uh, did either of you catch what time were meeting? Or, you know, like literally a single word from that meeting?"

"Of course I did." I hadn't. But I had a pretty damn good memory. "We meet at 10, boss has 4 health bars and an axe, once he hits his last one he switches to a short sword, yadda yadda. You should really pay more attention to your surroundings, Argo. Besides, you know all of this. You quite literally wrote the book they were teaching out of."

"Wh- how- what?!"

I glanced at Argo nonchalantly. "What?"

"H-How the hell did you hear that?! You weren't paying attention at all!"

"Ah, but that's where you're wrong, young Padawan. I was simply multitasking."

Argo shook her head. "You are by far the weirdest person I've ever met."

I shrugged. "I get that a lot. Hey, there's a party going down in the town's main square tonight. You down?"

Argo shook her head. "I've got contacts to meet with, and besides–"

"I'm sure there will be a ton of alcohol going around, and where alcohol is, loose lips and valuable information is bound to follow for a cute girl such as yourself."

"I'm in."

"Kirito?"

He shook his head. "Nah, I'm gonna go find Asuna and try and see where her skills are at. I'll see you two tomorrow. Meet at nine? Oh, and Cayde, can I talk to you for a minute?"

It took Argo nudging me to remember 'Oh shit, that's me', so I nodded.

Argo threw her arm around my shoulder with a peace sign up. "You two have your boy talk, I'm gonna head over to the party, I'm gonna head back to the inn, see what I can see." By that she meant scam someone through PM's, no doubt.

Kirito waited until she was up the alley to address me. "Did your memory come back?" I nodded, and he grabbed my shoulder fairly roughly. "I need to know how you knew that was coming."

I looked at him with a faked confused expression. "I'm sure I don't know what you mean."

"When we first got here, how did you know we wouldn't be able to log out?" When I didn't respond he continued. "Are you that bastard working under Kayaba?"

I groaned. Damnit Argo, I should've known that plan was too perfect. Why did it have to come back and bite _me_ in the ass and not her, I'll never know. "There is no guy working under Kayaba."

"What?"

"Look, you're probably not going to believe me, because 'that's exactly what a guy working under Kayaba would say' and all that, but he doesn't exist. Argo and I made him up in the first minutes of this stupid game in an attempt to have people take their lives in here more seriously."

Kirito leaned back on his heels and finally let go of my shoulder. "Fine. I'll believe you for now, since we're party members." He walked off, presumably to go share some crappy bread with Asuna, leaving me alone in the night. I took a deep breath. I could hear the joyous sounds of the celebration going on towards the center of town, and I could smell the scent of good food coming from there.

I shrugged. Well, when in doubt, follow your nose. Maybe I can even get some kind of steak out of this. I'd been craving it since coming to Aincrad. Well, that and _someone_ had to keep Argo in check, and I'm not sure anyone else is willing and/or able. I sighed. It would be a long night, for sure.


	3. Chapter 3

Somber Dawn

Chapter 3

A SAO fic

I resisted the urge to laugh as Kirito groaned and covered his face with his hand.

"You're telling me you don't know what a switch is?"

"Nope."

"Have you ever even been in a party? Hell, have you ever even played an MMORPG?"

"Nope."

This time I couldn't resist the urge to laugh. Asuna's easy answer, along with the absolutely hopeless look Kirito was giving me, was priceless.

Asuna, thinking I was laughing at her, glared at me from the other side of the small path we were walking along. At least, I assume she was glaring. I couldn't quite see under that pesky hood. "I'm sorry I can't be up to your standards." Her voice was dripping with sarcasm.

Which Kirito somehow missed, shaking his head seriously. God, this kid could be dense. "No, you're going to be an amazing swordswoman, I can tell already. Hell, you're already pretty amazing."

Asuna's step faltered. It wasn't much, and there was nothing overt like a blush or anything, but it had my eyes widening. I wasn't aware Asuna was even capable of positive feelings at this stage, consumed as she was with her suicidal bid for power.

"Ughhh…" The form on my back shifted.

"Hey, lazyass, you gonna be ok for this boss fight? You know, your Knight in shining armor is supposed to carry you away from battle, not towards it."

She groaned from her position, piggyback in my back and squinted her eyes open. "Why does this game even have a Hangover status? Shouldn't all status effects be cleared when you sleep in a bed?" Apparently she wasn't cognizant enough to counter my Knight in shining armor comment.

I rolled my eyes. "What bed? You stayed up all night trying to scam people out of their personal information."

I felt her head hit my shoulder again. "This bed, right here. And I wasn't scamming people, I was making friends, with the assistance of alcohol. And then scamming them."

I frowned as I remembered something. "Is that even legal? How old are you, Argo?"

"Classified information. But for the right price…"

I rolled my eyes again. "In your dreams. I've got more important things to blow my col on."

"Whatever you say…"

We walked for a few more minutes, Kirito still trying to hurriedly explain the basics of non-solo combat in MMORPG's to Asuna. We had met this morning, and gone over our… unconventional fighting style for our unconventional party of four. We agreed it would be best to 'partner up', with Argo and I forming one partnership and Asuna and Kirito forming the other. This was under the pretense that Argo and I were already familiar with each other's fighting styles, which was true, but I had strongly advocated for it due to my future knowledge that Asuna and Kirito's fighting styles would blend nearly seamlessly.

Suddenly, the rest of the raid party stopped ahead of us. It seemed we had reached the foot of the tower. Or labyrinth, dungeon, whatever you wanted to call it.

I navigated to my inventory, dumping Argo off my shoulders in the process, earning a shout of protest as she hit the ground hard.

Kirito slid up next to me. "Hey Cayde, is she going to be ok? We're fighting a boss after all… It might be best for her to sit this one out."

I shook my head, still scrolling through my inventory. "Nah, I've got this… Here it is." I exclaimed, materializing a small, white root from my inventory, and tossing it to Argo.

She caught it and groaned as she inspected it, before shoving it into her mouth. I winced. That couldn't taste good. She stood up swiftly, giving me a glare. "I hate you."

I grinned at her as Kirito looked between us confusedly. "What was that item?"

Argo answered. "It was a Bitter Root. It certain negative status effects, specifically Hangover and Exhaustion. Cayde, my self-proclaimed 'Knight in shining armor' apparently had one all morning, during which I was both Hungover and Exhausted, and didn't even have the decency to let me know he had it until I had suffered for hours on end."

I shrugged, the grin never leaving my face. "Eh, you'd have never learned your lesson if I'd just given it to you. Hell, I wouldn't have given it to you at all if we weren't about to go into battle."

Her eyes locked with mine. "I hate you so much."

Suddenly, a sullen voice spoke up behind me. And no, I did not 'jump 3 feet into the air', as Argo would have you believe. I simply… flinched. What? Asuna was creepy back then. "How can you all be so… happy?"

Argo and I both locked eyes, debating who would answer this one. She smirked and I rolled my eyes, somehow losing our unspoken byplay. "Well, how can you be so sad all the time?"

Asuna shifted under her cloak. There was an awkward silence, as I had actually expected her to answer, while she thought it was rhetorical. I coughed and kept going, playing it off like it was. "We have to be happy. My philosophy is that any day you're not happy is a day wasted."

"...But how can you be happy, trapped in a death game like this? Wouldn't it be better to spend your time training to become better and get out?"

I shrugged. "Maybe. Maybe it would be better to spend our time training if we wanted to get out as fast as possible, maybe shave off a few days from our time spent here. But, it's still gonna take awhile to get out of this hell hole. And I believe it's more important to enjoy what we do have, rather than throw it away in the name of trying to clear the game faster. If I was never trapped in here, I never would've met Argo, or you, or Kirito, and I believe these are experiences worth cherishing."

She gave a noncommittal hum, before turning away from me and checking something in her inventory. I shrugged. It didn't really matter whether she listened to me or not, Kirito would be able to explain it way better sometime in the distant future, and I knew she believed him.

Kirito nodded in my direction. "Well said."

"Or," I continued with a growing smirk, "It could've been the pressure finally got to us. Argo and I have both snapped. We're completely insane and can find humor in even the most morbid of situations. Like that one time–"

I felt a sharp pain in my side, courtesy of Argo's elbow. She looked over at Asuna and gave her an exasperated look. "Don't listen to a thing he says. He just thinks it's funny to make people think he's crazy."

I sighed theatrically. "Argo, dear, could you stop ruining my fun? I was just getting to the good part."

She rolled her eyes and turned towards the dungeon. "Yeah, whatever. Come on, we're moving out again. Oh, and Cayde, please restrain yourself from teasing people who don't know that you're kidding."

"Yes mam." I saluted before falling into line behind Asuna and Kirito, who was giving me an incredulous look. "What?"

He shook his head before walking off in front of me. "If that woman is telling you to stop teasing, you must really be something."

I shrugged and we fell into silence as we entered the dungeon.

The first floor dungeon turned out to be a cakewalk, what with us numbering nearly 40, with an average level five or six above that of the toughest monsters here. We didn't even have to stop once until we came to a massive set of bronze doors, where Diabel turned around and slammed his sword into the ground theatrically "I only have one thing to say to you. Let's win!"

The crowd cheers, and I smirked. Say what you will about the guy, but he was a damn good leader. If he makes it out of this alive this time, he could lead a guild with ease.

The doors creaked open, the inside of the boss room filling with light like a rainbow had barfed in it. The fight went much like it had in canon, except with maybe a little less HP taken off of the backup groups, due to Argo and I being there to take some hits and dish more than a few back of our own.

As the boss got low, I heard Diabel shout his damning cry, idiotically stepping up to take the boss out on his own, and I knew I had to make a choice. I could let Diabel die, or I could save him. Honestly, the first option was probably the best. Most likely, Kirito would again be blamed and labeled a beater, just like in canon. This would allow me to better predict what was coming, and would allow Kirito to grow into the lonely swordsman and hero he had to be to get us out of this hell hole.

I heard Kirito shout out a warning to Diabel as something tipped him off to the bosses new attack patterns and weapon.

Alternatively, I could save Diabel. This had its own benefits and drawbacks. I could no longer rely on my future knowledge, as much of it revolved around Kirito, and this would be changing it too dramatically. Along those same lines, changing Kirito's experience of this game was incredibly stupid and dangerous. It was truly an incredible turn of events that allowed the players to exit the game on the 75th floor, and I was loathe to change anything that might affect that.

Whatever I was gonna do, I had to decide fast. Diabel had already been hit once, the first in what I knew to be a 3 hit combo.

The world slowed down. " _What to do? What do I do?!"_

The second hit launched the blue haired swordsman into the air.

In the end, it wasn't some big, moral, epiphany that swayed me one way or another. It was a small misstep– Asuna's, to be exact. When Kirito complimented her, she misstepped.

I launched myself into the air. I couldn't quite get Diabel out of the way, but my HP bar was still full. I had jumped so my trajectory took me directly between the blade and the body of the self-proclaimed knight.

I squeezed my eyes shut. I realized what I had been missing this whole time. I had been trivializing Kirito. I had been trivializing Asuna, too. Up to this point, I'd acted like everything that had happened had been an extreme stroke of luck, and, admittedly, some of it _was_ luck, but a much bigger part of it wasn't. I had treated Asuna's love for Kirito and vice versa as luck, and it had taken Asuna's misstep to realize my mistake. Their love, Kirito's willpower, even Kayaba's mad challenge. They could all, and probably would all, still happen, even if some minor events changed. And this way, I could save lives without worrying about changing the story line.

Someone shouted, and then a massive force hit me directly in the chest. It was unbelievable how much it hurt, but I was fairly confident I would live. Fairly. The force of the sword blew me backwards nearly all the way across the room. Ok, I was about 50-50 on living at this point, as my HP bar rapidly fell into the red danger zone. I watched desperately as it slowed to a halt as my uncontrolled tumble/slide did the same. It finally stopped in the single digits. "Well that was lucky…"

I closed my eyes. The game must have had some kind of exhaustion effect as your health neared 0, because damn was I tired, and after just one hit. Amazing how a sword the size of manhattan could do that to you. Slowly, I navigated the menu to my inventory, retrieving and sucking down a potion. " _Hmm, tastes like strawberry…"_

Yeah… needless to say I was out for the rest of the fight. " _Ah, whatever. Kirito's got this."_ I thought, closing my eyes again.

And indeed, Kirito did have this. I scootched my way over to a massive pillar, grateful as the effects of the health potion finally started to kick in. The boss fight was basically over, with Asuna and Kirito putting the final touches on the portrait of red that adorned Illfang's chest.

There was only one final 'boss' I had to face here. Argo slowly walked over to me, face red as a cherry behind her auburn hair. "That was so…"

"Brave?" I tried.

"So…"

"Manly?" I tried again.

"So stupid!" I winced as she punched my chest and my slowly rising HP bar dropped again. "You could've died!" She punched me again.

"But... I didn't?" Another punch. "I might, though if you keep that up."

Her eyes widened as she noticed the sliver of a health bar I had left, which led to her trying to force another potion down my throat, and me desperately trying to tell her that these potions don't stack. Apparently, the scene was quite amusing, as the others in the room started to laugh and cheer, both out of amusement and exhilaration as the massive 'Congratulations!' sign popped up in front of us. Both Kirito and Asuna found us and we shared a congratulatory smile.

And, of course, myself being a guy, couldn't help but notice Asuna's stunning beauty without the cloak on. Really, the anime from my world did not do her exotic chestnut eyes and auburn hair enough credit.

"Stop cheering!" My eyes widened as I heard Spiky exclaim this, same as in canon. Had Diabel _still_ died, even without taking the last hit? "You could've stopped this!" He continued, pointing at Kirito. "You knew–!"

A hand came down hard on his shoulder. "Stop this, Kibaou." I breathed a sigh of relief as the familiar voice of Diabel rang out. "The beta-testers are not to blame for my stupidity of trying to take the boss for myself. Besides…" He marched over to the four of us, and I was surprised as he deeply bowed in my direction. "I owe this one my life. I thank you, Cayde, beta-tester of SAO, for saving my life. I would have surely died had you not taken the blow for me."

Wait, did he think I was a… No, he thought I _wasn't_ a beta-tester, and no one here knew that he was. I almost laughed out loud at the genius and irony of it. Instead of giving beta-testers and normal players a common enemy like they had in canon, Diabel was trying to fix the rift by using my sacrifice as a bridge between the two. The ironic part was, no one else in the room but Diabel and I knew the full extent of the lie, that our roles were reversed. _He_ was a beta-tester, and _I_ was not.

Of course, if everyone knew this, they would be outraged, at a normal player sacrificing themselves for a beta-tester. I scratched the back of my neck sheepishly. "Ah, it was nothing. I was just doing what any player should do for another. I just hope if I ever need help in the future, you'll be there, as will any of the beta-testers in my party and beyond."

A small smirk crossed Diabel's face, visible only to me, as he realized my counter-ploy. By setting ourselves up as the spokesperson for beta-testers and normal players, we could further close the gap between the two. "If you need help, I'll be there. Every player in SAO is in this together, from the most experienced of beta-testers, to the newest of players, and we should all strive to keep our fellow man alive and well."

Diabel rose his head and we shook hands, igniting another cheer from the whole of the room. I looked back at my party, smirking as I saw a small crystal held in the hand of Argo. No doubt the entire interaction would be posted in the newspaper tomorrow. Nearly every player in Aincrad would soon hear what had happened here, and I'm sure with Argo's theatrics she would make it out to be a massive production.

"Shall we?" I said to the gathered group, gesturing towards the staircase leading towards the second floor.

Diabel nodded, and together we crossed the threshold into the new floor.


End file.
